The Mondelēz International recipe for fast-track transformation

Mondelēz International (MDLZ), a global snacking company and world leader in biscuits, chocolate, gum and candy, wanted to transform its business model to meet rising customer expectations and competition.

Yet the company faced pressure on many sides. New acquisitions and a vast regional network were increasing overheads, causing operating redundancies, and creating inconsistent processes.

That was then. Today, digital technologies powered by Genpact Cora, an AI-based platform, support the organization’s global finance operations in 75 countries on 6 continents and over 150 back-office processes. The result: improved governance, agility, resilience, faster time-to-market, and money to re-invest in innovation and growth.

Challenge

Boost growth and maintain a lead position while bringing operations up to speed

Having realigned its product portfolio to become more agile and meet evolving customer demands, MDLZ also sought to improve margins and cost structures to invest in growth. Its ambitious targets demanded holistic transformation across its factories and functions.

The leadership team was committed to act on strategic priorities with speed and agility in the face of a region-based structure, fragmented controls, and inconsistent processes across finance, procurement, and the supply chain.

To cultivate more business, meet customer expectations, and make the right targeted investments, it needed to transform its back-office functions, including finance, and roll out global processes. MDLZ set about building a global shared service that simplified and standardized 150 back-office processes. And it was determined to accomplish that in three years.

Solution

Reimagine operations in the fast lane

MDLZ identified that its existing regional model had to give way to one driven by product category – and that meant completely reimagining operations.

The company knew that it had to fast-track this transformation while keeping disorder to a minimum.

To support this goal within the three-year time frame, Genpact began with a detailed analysis that helped MDLZ identify what to centralize and decentralize. Process taxonomies determined which processes to standardize, and Genpact assigned service-level agreements (SLAs) and metrics to them.

Managing the overhaul while setting clear priorities

The MDLZ finance blueprint covers 22 key markets, and required 300 dedicated resources to assess the health of finance policies, processes, operating models, technologies, controls, and metrics. Working with Genpact, MDLZ defined, prioritized, and sequenced the necessary steps to transform from country-facing teams to process-centric centers of excellence and assembly-line models.

Of course, change management was a concern, so our industry experts worked with the organization to design a migration toolkit for speedy, right-first-time transitions that were repeatable across markets. Within 12 months, MDLZ consolidated over 40 migration operations from more than 75 countries into 6 centers with a goal to transition nearly 70 processes.

We used ProcIndex—a diagnostic tool that measures process health—and the Smart Enterprise Processes framework for a fast, granular and data-driven redesign and better operating metrics. The framework focused on high-throughput processes, such as those integral to financial close, streamlining transactional tasks, raising intervention thresholds, and improving governance.

Avoiding the digital junkyard with a Lean Digital approach

MDLZ wanted to have consistent alignment between digital transformation and its strategic objectives. For example, it was focused on integrating new digital tools with legacy systems, processes, and organizational silos to prevent lengthy, complex, low-yield projects. To integrate the consumer-facing front end of its operations with the back office, MDLZ combined design thinking with Lean principles. In this way, it focused on the most material sources of value while also minimizing waste.

For effective transformation, MDLZ adopted digital products, powered by Genpact Cora, our AI-based platform. Systems of engagement and nimble technologies, such as robotic process automation and mobility, worked with existing technology to simplify transformation and speed up its benefits. MDLZ worked closely with Genpact and used co-innovation to build a number of solutions. The team delivered:

• Real-time visibility into finance operations: By adopting our standardized and unified view of operations and financial performance, MDLZ integrated data from all ERP and related systems for finance and accounting process metrics on a single portal. That gives MDLZ instant access to information, in-depth analytics, and agile decision-making.
• Automating manual tasks: A touchless journal processing solution with proactive rule-based validation is helping to enhance analytics and exceptions management, deliver accurate data and more timely reporting, and improve close.
• Creating a culture of compliance: By setting up a global controls hub – an internal controls center of excellence – we helped standardize and automate internal controls across all operational and support processes. And a redesigned Sarbanes-Oxley program gave MDLZ advanced control monitoring solutions with self-assessments and continuous monitoring. The controllership teams can now focus on helping the business be more compliant rather than police each function.

Robust governance and next steps

For enterprise-wide transformation projects that span multiple geographies and complex processes, good governance is critical. A governance model of strategic, steering, and operational layers helps align partners, business functions, and shared services organizations with strategic goals.

To take advantage of the next technology breakthroughs, MDLZ formed an innovation council to drive leadership support, earmark funds, and build partnerships, with several interventions planned for roll-out (figure 2).

Impact

A simplified, streamlined, and hyper-efficient organization

Throughout this accelerated transformation across global operations, Genpact helped deliver consistent, digital-enabled processes that can improve the customer experience, grow the business, and reduce costs across the world. MDLZ can now manage future change at speed.

In its present simplified and efficient state, it can achieve global standards at scale. The business is also more resilient to external threats. Continuous monitoring and reporting mean MDLZ can act on data-driven decisions faster. What’s more, MDLZ can invest savings in innovation and special projects to drive revenue.

MDLZ now has a roadmap for automating financial planning and analysis, record to report, and enabling an integrated supply chain. And down the road, it can experiment with the internet of things and remote monitoring to minimize the loss of point-of-sale vending devices.

The impact so far

• Quality of service: Positive movements in timeliness and accuracy of SLAs over 18 months
• Compliance: Centralization of controls into a global center of excellence, automation of controls, and continuous monitoring have greatly improved compliance
• Cost: Significant cost reduction of 41% in finance operations through a combination of increased process standardization, better ERP use, and a more integrated supply chain. Digital interventions are set to deliver further value